New Orleans, La. New Orleans Award-winning Photographer Steven Forster has announced that he will unveil the exhibition of his legends series of jazz and musical giants including Ella Fitzgerald at the Robert Bruno Gallery in New Orleans for the month of November 2007.

Forster photographed Fitzgerald on stage in 1979 at the 10th New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and a few years later delivered a framed photograph to his idol during her stay at New Orleans. Fairmont Hotel where she was performing at the Blue Room. A sleepy Fitzgerald, clad in a robe, greeted him at her hotel suite door.

Forster's photography work is included in the Permanent Historic New Orleans Collection, The Permanent Collection of The New Orleans Museum of Art, The Permanent Collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Contemporary Arts Center, The Robert Bruno Gallery, the Mario Villa Gallery and the John Stinson Gallery. His work has been included in exhibitions of master photographers Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Clarence John Laughlin, and Weegee (Usher Arthur "Weegee" Felig) as well as exhibitions with Yoko Ono, Leroy Neiman, Peter Max and Tony Bennett. His clients have included Random House Books for the cover jacket photograph of Pulitzer Prize winning author Rick Bragg (#1 New York Times Best Seller, I Am A Soldier, Too; The Jessica Lynch Story). Forster and the cover jacket photograph of the great writer Ernest Gaines for Mozart and Leadbelly: Stories and Essays.

Forster swept the Fashion Photography category for both published and non-published work at the annual Alpha Awards presented by the Fashion Group International (founded in 1930) of New Orleans in 2004 and still remains the holder of First, Second and Third Place from the Alpha Awards presented by the Fashion Group International of New Orleans in the Fashion Photography category. Forster shut out all other published and non-published fashion photographers from the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama and the Florida panhandle for his fashion and jazz work. Forster is now an eight-time Alpha Award winning photographer whose work is featured in his own award-winning newspaper page, the "Big Easy Page" in the Sunday editions of the Times-Picayune, Louisiana's largest newspaper as well as My Way in the Times-Picayune's WISH Magazine, his monthly fashion column.

For more information contact sforster@bellsouth.net. ROBERT BRUNO GALLERY is in the Warehouse Arts District of New Orleans, 900 S. Peters St., New Orleans, La. 70130, tel: (504) 495 8287.

For digital images contact Forster at sforster@bellsouth.net or www.stevenforster.com

Dates: November 3rd thru November. Thursday - Saturday 12-5pm and by appointment; event premiere party, Sat November 3rd, 6-9pm. Free and open to the public.

"This exhibition will unveil Steven Forster's legends series of jazz and musical giants including Ella Fitzgerald, who will be among many giants including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Nancy Wilson, Pete Fountain and many more. This exhibition was inspired by Forster.s life long infatuation with the voice of Ella Fitzgerald.

"She inspired me artistically and musically and has always been a part of my life," Forster says. He photographed her on stage in 1979 at the 10th New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Forster believed the negatives of his Fitzgerald shoot had been destroyed in a fire 25 years ago. In October Forster discovered a set of some of the negatives in an envelope. His joy at discovering them propelled him into action, he matched images of other musical greats he had photographed over the years, and his latest one-man show was born." Vision America by Sara Namias ZOOM International Magazine

"Like most in the (New Orleans) metro area Forster's losses following the storms were devasting. He lost the majority of his files, as the second story of his apartment complex caved into the first floor. With mold and water everywhere, his spirit could have easily been broken but he like many others, found strength to move forward...Forster found a new beginning and it is his hope that others will too. NPR's Diane Mack in an interview with Steven Forster after Hurricane Katrina